UK athletes support Kickin It 4 Kelly

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - Cancer can be a tough battle for anyone of any age, but for one young Pulaski County boy, he's not in the battle alone. He has an entire Big Blue Nation backing him up.

Life isn't a matter of miracles, but of moments. For 7-year-old Kelly Melton, these are fun, carefree moments. Moments that have been hard to come by over the past 6 months.

"He had fell asleep in school a couple of times and it's just something Kelly wouldn't do," explained Dad Harrison Melton, "something just wasn't right, so she ran a blood test and it came back... it was leukemia. I didn't know a whole lot about it, I had heard kids and adults get it, but I had no idea how many until we got up here and it's just very hard. I think he understands that there's time that he doesn't feel good, that he's tired and of course that he's lost his hair but other than that he'll just tell you that he has leukemia."

In a world of social media, even cancer can be battled with friends.

"It started out his best friend Ariel made him a Facebook page and called it Kickin 4 Kelly. And Martavius Neloms, he got on there and looked at it and immediately Martavius was at the hospital with Kelly to see him," said Harrison Melton.

The hospital visits continued, from other members of the UK football team, including head coach Mark Stoops. He even formed a friendship with the biggest Wildcat of them all, Nerlens Noel.

"He's all a kid could imagine... and he's pretty tall," Kelly told us.

On May 4th, Nerlens Noel took Kelly as his special guest to the Kentucky Derby.

"He doesn't look at them as athletes, he doesn't care that Nerlens is seven foot tall and a basketball player. He doesn't look at it that way. Even though he calls him coach Stoops, he's just a man that's come to see him and spend time and talk," Dad Harrison Melton explained.

Even the support of the Big Blue Nation, and the unfailing spirit of a little boy, can't numb the sting of needles and the cruelness of chemo.

"Me and him were talking and I just started crying cause he's my little boy, and he said, 'dad why are you crying?' I said, 'well I'm worried about you bud,' and he said, 'don't worry about me. I'm going to beat this' and he said, 'if I don't, I go home to Jesus.'"

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